EURO qualifying facts and figures

UEFA European Championship qualifying records

• There have been 14 qualifying tournaments for the UEFA European Championship with 11 countries participating in all of them: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain and Turkey.

• The Soviet Union and Russia combined have also been involved in all 14 qualifying tournaments, as have Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.

• Of those ever-present nations, Spain have the most successful record, reaching the final tournament on nine occasions, including the 1964 event which they hosted.

• The most prolific qualifying country are West Germany/Germany, with ten successful attempts out of 11. Their only failure was in their first participation, for the 1968 tournament. They are on a run of ten successful qualifications, broken only by EURO '88, for which they qualified automatically as hosts.

• Discounting host nation exemptions, France and Germany hold the record for consecutive qualifications, from 1992 to 2012. Like West Germany/Germany, the Soviet Union/Russia have enjoyed a record ten successful qualifications – but from a maximum 14 entries.

Germany have a fine record©Getty Images

• The best percentage record for a single country is shared by Germany and the Czech Republic, who both have a 100% success rate, with six and five qualifications respectively. Next best are Croatia, who have qualified four times out of five (80%), from 1996 to 2012.

• Excluding tournament hosts, 2016 organisers France among them, ten countries are on a run of multiple successful qualifications going into UEFA EURO 2016 – Germany (six), Czech Republic, Italy and Spain (five), Sweden (four), Croatia, Greece, Netherlands and Russia (three), and Portugal (two).

• Including tournament hosts, the longest sequences of ongoing consecutive multiple participations at the finals are as follows: West Germany/Germany (11), the Netherlands (seven), France (six), Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Spain (five), Sweden (four), Croatia, Greece, Russia (three), and Poland (two).

• Of the 53 nations pursuing a UEFA EURO 2016 spot via the qualifiers, 26 have never featured at a final tournament. Additionally, neither Austria nor Ukraine have ever experienced a fruitful qualifying campaign, their only appearances at the finals being in 2008 and 2012 respectively, when they were co-hosts.

• Gibraltar are the sole association in the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying field to be making their competition debut. Montenegro are making their second appearance and Kazakhstan their third.

• On just one of their ten successful qualification bids have West Germany/Germany failed to qualify as group winners. That was in 2008, when the Czech Republic edged them into second place, a position that also carried automatic qualification. The longest ongoing streak of qualifying group victories is held by Italy, who have topped their section in each of the last four competitions. Greece have the next best record in that regard, finishing first in the last three qualifying events. Spain are the only other nation to have won their group in the qualifying campaigns for both 2008 and 2012.

• Hungary and the Republic of Ireland share the record for the highest number of qualification matches played by a single nation, with 118 apiece, although the Soviet Union/Russia have contested 119. Twenty-two other countries or combinations have amassed a century or more of qualifying games with 12 – Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Belgium, Wales, Finland, Cyprus, Sweden and Malta – joining that number in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying.

• Spain have registered the most UEFA European Championship qualifying wins, 80, followed by Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic on 75, with the Soviet Union/Russia on 72 and the Netherlands on 71.

Spain are top scorers in qualifying©Getty Images

• Spain are also the competition's top goalscorers, finding the net 282 times. The Netherlands are second in the list with 248.

• The side with the highest number of defeats are Luxembourg with 91, followed by Malta (84) and Cyprus (72).

• Aside from debutants Gibraltar, two teams have never won a UEFA European Championship qualifier. Andorra have lost every one of their 49 matches; San Marino had lost 59 in a row before the goalless draw against Estonia in November 2014.

• The most goals conceded by one team is 299, by Luxembourg, closely followed by Malta on 287. San Marino are next up on 287 – from just 65 games, in which they have scored a mere seven goals, the fewest by any competing nation bar Gibraltar.

• The Republic of Ireland and Romania have both drawn 35 qualifiers, more than any other side.

• Only five teams have qualified with a perfect record in their group – France (eight victories out of eight, EURO '92 and UEFA EURO 2004), Czech Republic (ten out of ten, UEFA EURO 2000), Germany (ten, UEFA EURO 2012), and Spain (eight, UEFA EURO 2012).

• Italy have the longest ongoing unbeaten UEFA European Championship qualifying run, having avoided defeat in each of their last 28 qualifying matches. Greece's 18-game unbeaten run was ended by Romania on matchday one, Spain's own 18-match streak and Germany's 13-game sequence both ended on matchday two. England (14) are also on a long sequence without defeat. Those five countries all came through the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying campaign unbowed, but no side avoided defeat en route to UEFA EURO 2008.

• Liechtenstein and Armenia have never qualified for a UEFA European Championship final tournament but boast the players with the most appearances in the qualifying competition, Mario Frick (50) and Sargis Hovsepyan (47).

• Ireland's Keane is the highest scorer in UEFA European Championship qualifying matches with 23 goals. Turkey's Hakan Şükür and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo both have 20 goals; the Czech Republic's Jan Koller and Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson are both on 19. Two players are on 18 goals: Miroslav Klose (Germany) and Raúl González (Spain).

• The highest number of goals netted in a single qualifying tournament is 13, by Northern Ireland's David Healy ahead of the 2008 finals. Next on the chart are Robert Lewandowski (2016), Davor Šuker (1996) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (2012) with 12 apiece.